The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

and television have become nearly inseparable in recent years, with second-screen involvement now bordering on a necessity for viewers wishing to be involved in the live discussion. To that end, Nielsen has begun measuring that live social involvement for the year's biggest TV events. On Monday, Nielsen released its findings in a report on the TV season's biggest moments on Twitter, breaking out its findings into categories that include the top sports events of the year.

Unsurprisingly, football dominates that list: Seven of the ten most popular sports events on Twitter were football games. The Super Bowl sits atop the field, immediately followed by the NFC and AFC Championship games. What's shocking, however, is that one of those seven match-ups was a regular season game: the 2013 Iron Bowl.

Widely considered one of the greatest college football games ever played, last year's rivalry showdown between Alabama and Auburn featured a finish so thrilling that over two million Tweets about the game were seen by nearly nine million unique Twitter accounts, good for the ninth-largest social audience on Nielsen's sports list. Even more impressive, the game isn't just the only regular season game on the list, but it's also a conference rivalry that wouldn't be expected to have the national draw of something like an NFL playoff game.

The other three football games include two NFL playoff games and the BCS National Championship, while the three non-football events include another college championship game, an All-Star game and the Olympics. The NCAA Championship Game between Connecticut and Kentucky sits at No. 5 (Twitter audience of ten million) and the NBA All-Star Game is at No. 8 (nine million), while the Winter Games' opening ceremony takes the final non-football slot, ranking sixth with 1.1 million relevant Tweets being seen by an audience of 9.6 million.

Beyond the Iron Bowl's incredible impact, Nielsen's report also highlights just how important sports telecasts are as so-called DVR-proof programming. The top sports events blow away TV series like Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, which had average Twitter audiences of six million and five million per episode, respectively. Even Tweets related to the single most popular episode - Breaking Bad's series finale - reached a unique audience of 9.1 million people, which would rank just eighth among the top sports events of the last nine months.

Ultimately, while half the fun of Game of Thrones might be Tweeting along with the action, sex and sword fights just can't compete with kick returns and trophy celebrations.